The Maine

Emerging from Arizona, the Maine built a reputation around emotive pop-punk and indie rock. The quintet first drew notice via the Vans Warped Tour, then delivered their Top 40 debut Can't Stop Won't Stop in 2008. Follow-up Black & White reached the Billboard 200’s Top 20 in 2010, while Forever Halloween, American Candy, and Lovely Little Lonely each landed inside the Top 40 in 2013, 2015, and 2017. Continuing to refine their approach, the group moved toward a more sophisticated, literate rock aesthetic on You Are OK in 2019, XOXO: From Love and Anxiety in Real Time in 2021, and the self-titled The Maine in 2023.

Though named for a northeastern state, the Maine formed in 2007 in Tempe, Arizona—a college town outside Phoenix. At the time, most members—singer John O’Callaghan, guitarists Kennedy Brock and Jared Monaco, bassist Garrett Nickelsen, and drummer Pat Kirch—were still in high school; drawing on ’90s radio-rock influences, they quickly shaped a catchy, familiar pop-punk style. The band signed with Fearless Records and issued the five-song concept EP The Way We Talk in 2007. After appearing on the Vans Warped Tour the next year, they released their first full-length, Can’t Stop Won’t Stop, produced by emo-pop veteran Matt Squire (Simple Plan, Sum 41). The album climbed to number 40 on the Billboard charts and attracted Warner Bros., which offered the Maine a major-label deal in 2009. A deluxe edition of Can’t Stop Won’t Stop followed later that year; in 2010 the band returned with sophomore effort Black & White. That same year they launched their first headlining tour and received Alternative Press’s Album of the Year honor for Black & White.

The Maine issued Pioneer—their first post-Warner project—in December 2011, then re-released it a year later bundled with the six-track EP Good Love. Their fourth album, Forever Halloween, arrived in June 2013 and entered the Billboard Top 40; produced by Brendan Benson of the Raconteurs, it marked the second release without major-label backing. Months afterward they unveiled the five-song acoustic EP Imaginary Numbers. By 2015 their sound had shifted closer to the 1975 than typical Warped Tour fare, a change highlighted on fifth album American Candy. Featuring the hit single “English Girls,” the record debuted in the Top Ten of Billboard’s independent, alternative, and rock charts. To connect with fans, the band made every date of the supporting tour free and staged intimate shows performing the album front to back.

Further exploring melodic pop, the Maine released the two-part covers EP Covers; Side A reworked late-’90s tracks by New Radicals, Len, and Backstreet Boys, while Side B tackled contemporary hits from Drake, Justin Bieber, and Rihanna. In January 2017 they dropped the single “Bad Behavior” ahead of sixth studio album Lovely Little Lonely, which appeared that April. A year later the group announced completion of seventh album You Are OK, released in March 2019. Two years afterward, in March 2021, the Maine returned with modern-rock single “Sticky,” the lead track from eighth album XOXO: From Love and Anxiety in Real Time, which became their highest-charting release to date. In 2022 they issued the hit “Loved You a Little” featuring Taking Back Sunday and Charlotte Sands. The band opened 2023 with propulsive single “Blaze” and anthemic “How to Exit a Room,” both featured on ninth album The Maine later that year.